While the coronavirus consumes the headlines, when we consider how China’s leader handled the crisis, we can see larger pattern of behavior that reveals a consistent pattern of failure, whether in trade negotiations, decreased economic growth even before the COVID-19 outbreak, the global attention centered on the Muslim “re-education camps” in Xinjiang, to the suppression of democracy in Hong Kong and violation of its treaty commitments to the U.K. 2019 was a year of major failures for Xi’s CCP.

The result of this cumulative failures is that Xi’s leadership is maladroit for the Chinese Communist Party and too reckless for China and the world. While these failures reflect poorly on Xi’s rule, the miscarriages have two consequences for China’s relationship with the rest of the world.

First, the failures are going to derail the image Xi’s China seeks to convey to the Chinese people and to the world. The CCP under Xi has launched an ideological assault on the rest of the world via the “China Dream” strategic narrative. This is Xi’s attempt to move China toward a confident and greatly elevated position can be seen in Xi’s statements on the “China Dream,” particularly its emphasis on “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and developing “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” The core of Xi’s message is the belief that the Chinese model of global governance is superior to the status quo established by the West, particularly the Anglo-Americans at the end of World War II and in its aftermath. Xi suggested that China is the only country that can usher in this new world order. “Rejuvenation” implies the return to a status quo ante, which, it is reasonable to suspect, is Chinese domination. According to Xi, this “new era” that the “China Dream” describes is characterized by “Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach to solving the problems facing mankind.”

In his elaboration of the “China Dream,” Xi often speaks of the need for “taking our own path,” which implies a break with the Western world order and the U.S. position in international politics. In actuality, this is a sustained effort to restore China’s past glory when it was the dominant force in the world. Xi has created the foundation for China’s takeover of the global economic order. His approach combines new narratives (“China Dream”), policies, institutions (such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, AIIB), and massive projects (e.g., Belt and Road Initiative, BRI) with the central objective of reconstituting the liberal world order, with new global governance ideas, concepts, and institutions that mask China’s power and hegemonic ambitions.